John 1:1, part 2

  Let us consider now how the Word relates to the Father as a unique individual. The apostle tells us that the Word was with God and the Word was God. There is more here than a revelation of the Great Three-One God.

  It would be completely unnecessary for John to state that the Word was with God if he were speaking only of God. God (Father, Word, and Spirit) is spirit [πνεῦμα ὁ θεός] John 4:24, and is omnipresent. Jesus Christ, on the other hand, is indeed a unique Being.



  The scriptures teach us that Jesus Christ is both God and man. Hebrews 1:2, 3 “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spoke in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken unto us by [his] Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; Who being the brightness of [his] glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;” (Emphases mine.)

  These scriptures identify the Word as the Son, God’s Son. The Son is said to be the brightness of God’s glory and the express image of His person [ἀπαύγασμα τῆς δόξης καὶ χαρακτὴρ τῆς ὑποστάσεως αὐτοῦ.] This is indeed the unique Being that has a special relationship with God the Father.

  Here is the point where the various “Christian” councils and creeds have failed to understand. They all hold that the Son’s begetting speaks of His deity.

  The Nicene creed states: “We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father.” The apostle John wrote that the Word was God. He did not write that the Father begot the Word as God.

  The Chalcedonian creed states: “Following, then, the holy fathers, we unite in teaching all men to confess the one and only Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. This selfsame one is perfect both in deity and in humanness; this selfsame one is also actually God and actually man, with a rational soul {meaning human soul} and a body. He is of the same reality as God as far as his deity is concerned and of the same reality as we ourselves as far as his humanness is concerned; thus like us in all respects, sin only excepted. Before time began he was begotten of the Father, in respect of his deity, and now in these "last days," for us and behalf of our salvation, this selfsame one was born of Mary the virgin, who is God-bearer in respect of his humanness.” Is this what the apostle John wrote of the Word? No, the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was not a begotten God.

  The second article of the second council of Constantinople states: “II. If anyone does not confess that God the Word was twice begotten, the first before all time from the Father, non- temporal and bodiless, the other in the last days when he came down from the heavens and was incarnate by the holy, glorious, God-bearer, ever-virgin Mary, and born of her, let him be anathema.”

  This list could go on and on. It is apparent that these councils denied what God inspired the apostle John to write. The Word was with God and the Word was God. John mentions nothing of the Word being begotten as God.

  Many have attempted to explain how it was that Jesus Christ existed before creation, and, indeed, it is a great mystery. “And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.”

Lord willing, I will continue this study later.